Montana opens outdoor season at Dornblaser Field

Five weeks after concluding the Big Sky Indoor Track & Field Championships in Flagstaff, Ariz., the Montana track & field program is back for more, opening the outdoor season this weekend at Dornblaser Field. The meet will be the first of four home meets – more than ever during head coach Brian Schweyen's 10-year career in Missoula – giving fans ample opportunities to see the Grizzlies in action.

This weekend's Al Manuel Northwest Dual Invitational includes athletes from Montana, Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana State and Portland State. The five Division-I teams are more than usual, meaning the two-day event will feature a stacked group of athletes across the board. The meet will begin Friday at 3 p.m. with the women's and men's hammer throw. Action will pick back up at 10 a.m. Saturday, beginning with the women's javelin. A complete schedule of events can be found here.

Competing for Montana will be:
Men: Noah Adams (800 meters), Paden Alexander (5,000 meters), Chase Armstrong (110-meter hurdles, 4x100 relay, 4x400 relay), Andrea Baratte (1,500 meters, 5,000 meters), Courtlynd Brown (100 meters, 200 meters, 4x100 relay, 4x400 relay), Charlie Bush (high jump, pole vault), Micah Drew (5,000 meters), Jonathan Eastwood (1,500 meters, 5,000 meters), Morgan Eitel (high jump, long jump, discus, javelin, 4x400 relay), Oliver Grajeda (shot put, hammer throw), Trevor Henry (200 meters, 400 meters, 4x400 relay), Colton Hess (200 meters, 400 meters, 4x400 relay), Luke Hilmes (javelin), Deszmon Humphries (shot put), Will Jones (400 meters, javelin, 4x400 relay), Kyle Kredo (800 meters, 1,500 meters), Jacob Lamb (800 meters), Jensen Lillquist (javelin), Dillon May (5,00 meters, 3,000 meters, steeplechase), Peter McMahon (shot put, hammer throw), Karsten Pease (800 meters, 1,500 meters), Kyle Peterson (5,000 meters), Jacob Price (long jump, triple jump), Josh Riley (110-meter hurdles, high jump, javelin, 4x100 relay, 4x400 relay), Parker Spadt (high jump), Nolan Staats (long jump), Rhett Streeter (110 meters, 200 meters, 4x100 relay), Nathan Wellington (5,000 meters, 3,000 meters, steeplechase), Grant Whitcutt (high jump, pole vault, discus, javelin, 4x400 relay), Brent Yeakey (shot put, discus).

Women: Kasiah Benson (pole vault), Claire Bohnsack (triple jump), Jane Booth (high jump), Lee camel (long jump), Madison Carr (5,000 meters, 3,000 meters, steeplechase), Emily Cheroske (800 meters, 4x400 relay), Hannah Coburn (200 meters, 100-meter hurdles, long jump), Abby Dodge (high jump), Jenna Dukovcic (200 meters, 100-meter hurdles, high jump, long jump), Kimberly Earhart (javelin), Samantha Engebretsen (5,000 meters), Madison Foulk (javelin), Madeline Hamilton (800 meters, 1,500 meters), Rosa Hardarson (800 meters), Mariah Harvey (shot put, discus, hammer throw), Darby Henthorn (javelin), Mariah Hinson (javelin), Kayla Holmes (discus, hammer throw), Holly Houston (shot put, discus, hammer throw), Rachel Lewis (triple jump), Jaree Mane (200 meters, 400 meters, 4x400 relay), Mattison McAnally (200 meters, 400 meters), Mijah McLeod (400 meters, 4x400 relay), Madison Neufeld (triple jump), Natalie Peterson (javelin), Chloe Seferos (pole vault), Carly Smiedala (400 meters, 4x400 relay), Zena Smith (javelin), Madison Ward (800 meters, 1,500 meters).

A conversation with Coach Schweyen:
GoGriz.com: It's been nearly five weeks since the outdoor season concluded. What has the team's training looked like since then?
Brian Schweyen: There's always that fine line of getting them ready without pushing too hard after an indoor season. In the weight room, you're trying to get back to what we were doing in the fall, but certainly it's a condensed version. Same thing with our training. You have to go back to building a little bit of a base and putting some endurance on these athletes so we can move forward, fine tune and increase the speed and volume of everything we do. It's like a condensed fall.

GG: Weather in the spring can always be a factor. How did you guys deal with spring in Montana?
CS: The weather was conducive enough that we were able to do everything we needed to do, without much interruption. That's not always the case, but it's nice when it works out that way.

GG: This weekend is your first of three months of competition. What are your expectations going into this weekend?
CS: Just get going and back into the routine. We want to set as high of a starting point as we can and keep climbing from there.

We've never had five DI programs compete at this meet, so this will be a nice little meet for us, and there will be some really good competition across the board. The schools coming in are strong in different areas, so we're going to see some good stuff.

GG: What areas do you see this team excelling in?
CS: In our women's, we still have a really, really good 800 meters group. I think that can be exciting to watch this first meet and as the season progresses. Really strong performances coming out of our mid-distance. On the men's side, I think mid-distance looks good as well. If you look at javelin, both men and women are going to be fairly strong. I think those are a couple areas to focus on early and see where it goes as the season progresses.

GG: You're redshirting several athletes to make a push for next season, when Montana hosts the Big Sky Championships. Still, though, you're trying to put out a competitive group this season as well. What are the expectations going into this season?
CS: It's no different from any other year. We want to see improvement from our young squad that we do have competing. We want to get each athlete as good as they possibly can be, and that starts with hard work and mental preparation and putting the time in. You have to go out and work hard every day, you can't just pick and choose. If you want to be good, it's a battle, and it's a battle that's not fought by enough people. We hope, as a whole, we can work hard and put in some really nice performances.

GG: You're hosting more home meets than any year in recent memory. How nice is that?
CS: It's nice for many reasons. You don't have the headache of traveling, getting off a bus and going to compete. You get the comfort of waking up in your own bed and coming to your own facility that you practice in daily. As long as we have good weather, having this many home meets can really be a good thing.

GG: You've now been coaching at Montana for a decade. What energizes you at the start of a season, 10 years later?
CS: What I look for, is I want to try and get regionally qualifying events in every meet, and try and get as many athletes qualified as we can so that we can have a great team at that meet, and then hopefully move some of them on to nationals. It's a fresh start of where we're at, and hopefully we can get a couple of those marks this weekend.

GG: Injuries held the team back a bit during the indoor season. What's the health of the team look like?
CS: The health seems to be pretty good. For the most part, I think we're doing really well. All of the coaches have done a great job, working hard to get the athletes where they need to be. A large part of that also falls on Drew Babcock (athletic trainer). He puts more hours in than anybody, really working on these kids and getting them into peak performance. It's not an easy job, especially with the number of athletes, but he does a tremendous job.

University of Montana Athletics

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